“No.”
Jack frowned as the ship taxied itself out of the hangar on Ariadne Station. “This whole automatic-spaceship thing is kind of a drag. Tell me this thing has a manual mode.”
Cobalt grabbed Jack’s hand before it could search for the appropriate switch. “Did you hear me, Jack? I said, ‘No.’”
Jack leaned back in his chair. Might as well let the ship get itself into orbit while I have this argument. “I heard you. I was ignoring you. Look, Eurydice is the only place we’re going to get military-quality guns for the Rose from people who won’t ask too many questions.”
Cobalt ran his fingers through his hair. “Remind me why we’re going after this woman—”
“Tegan O’Leary.”
Cobalt’s look said, “Of course I know that, you moron,” which was weird. Jack was the one who’d found the woman, and Cobalt was terrible with names. “Remind me why we’re going after Tegan again.”
“She wants to kill us,” Jack said. “Or at least, you’re convinced she does. Do you want to spend the rest of your life hiding out from her?”
“Yes! Yes, I do! We had a good thing going on Ariadne—decent jobs on a moon a hell of a lot better than Daedalus. And you liked that Roslyn girl, right? We could have been happy there.” Cobalt’s face was flushed, his breathing rapid.
I can be self-centered, but I know my brother. He’s been acting weird since the police station, and this is not just about the train job. “Blue, I am going to ask you again, and I want an honest answer this time. What is wrong with you?”
Cobalt dropped his head and hands between his knees and muttered something.
Jack leaned closer to him. “Did you just say, ‘I think we’re immortal beings who reincarnate’? Because that doesn’t make any—”
The wail of a siren interrupted Jack, and a voice sounded over the ship’s speakers. “Jack and Cobalt Zhao, you are under arrest for the theft of one million credits of diamonds from ZimmerCorp and for escape from a legitimate Ariadne holding facility. Please exit the spacecraft with your hands up.”
“Shit,” Jack and Cobalt said in unison, and both sat up and manned their stations.
“Stupid police with the access codes to every publicly sold ship,” Jack muttered.
“You disabled their access to everything except the speakers, right?” For someone who had wanted to stay on Ariadne a few minutes ago, Cobalt sure seemed in a rush to get off.
“Of course. What do you take me for? I left them access to the intercom so we would know they were coming. Aha!” Jack pushed the button labeled MANUAL at the bottom of his array of controls. His dashboard opened, and a steering mechanism slid out. “Brace for takeoff!”
Jack knew he only had a few seconds before the police figured out they couldn’t hold his ship in place, so he throttled forward at full thrust, clearing the last bit of the hangar and flinging himself into the emptiness of space.
Except space wasn’t so empty around Ariadne Station. The three sets of train tracks that led to Daedalus, Bellerophon, and Orpheus spiraled around the ship, making flight that much more complicated.
“Woooo!” Jack looped around the tracks faster than the bulky police ships could.
“Incoming!” Cobalt yelled.
Jack glanced at the viewscreen and realized he was on a collision course with a train coming into the station. He pushed the controls down, and the Rose shot straight up. The sudden movement rocked him and Cobalt. “That’s why I wanted the Elitu,” he said. “Smoother turns.”
“I stand by my choice.” Cobalt flipped a few toggles, which Jack assumed rerouted power to engines or navigation. “I presume you have a plan?”
“Working on it.” The downside of evading the train was it put the Rose in open space, which made it easier for the police vessel to catch up to them.
“Jack and Cobalt Zhao,” the voice over the speakers said. “This is your last chance to surrender.”
Before Jack even had a chance to surrender—not that he was going to—something rocked the Rose, and the ship slowed.
Cobalt hissed. “They hit our port thruster with a sonic pulse. I can fix it, but it’ll take a bit. Dodge them as best you can.” He darted out of his seat and headed down to the engine pit.
Jack tried to head back toward the train tracks, but the difficulty turning right created problems. The massive police ship bore down on them. Wait, that’s it. It’s massive and doesn’t have sensors everywhere.
He slowed the Rose, making it appear as if the shot had hindered him more than it had. As the police ship approached, Jack pulled a similar maneuver to the one he’d used to avoid the train, except that time, he went down.
A thud came up from the engine pit. “Hey!” Cobalt called.
“You said to dodge them!” Jack pulled up underneath the police vessel, keeping pace with the larger ship. No way could the police spot them. Unfortunately, the police ship wasn’t that much larger and less maneuverable than the Rose, and Jack had a hard time predicting its movements as it tried to get into a position where it could fire on him.
“How’s that thruster coming?” Jack yelled.
“I just got down here! These things take time!”
The police ship got into a position where it could fire its rear laser at Jack. With the port thruster as sluggish as it was, he was barely able to dodge. “We don’t have time!” he said.
“You’re the genius! Figure something out!”
Jack silently cursed. If I were a genius, I wouldn’t have bought the ship with stolen diamonds. But he would never say that for Cobalt to hear. “Our problems would be a lot fewer now if we had some guns on this ship.”
“Because we need to up our number of crimes to include firing on a police vessel.”
When Jack wrenched his ship to starboard to avoid another laser beam, the lack of balance sent the Rose into a tailspin. The smaller ship’s back faced the front of the police cruiser, where the missiles—and more importantly, the tractor beam—were located. He switched his viewscreen to observe the rear of his ship, and sure enough, telltale purple beams emerged from the police ship’s docking bay. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!”
“Do I want to know what’s going on up there?”
“Almost certainly not.” Jack closed his eyes and braced for the impact of tractor beams, but to his surprise, nothing happened. He opened one eye and looked at the viewscreen. The police ship had turned away from them.
Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jack moved full speed ahead, trying to put as much distance between him and the cruiser as he could. He looked at the viewscreen again as he limped away and saw the police cruiser had engaged with another ship. Taking in the old style, the bronze color, and the sleek lines, he didn’t need to see the name to identify the Transcendent Spirit. He didn’t know if he was more surprised that Tegan O’Leary had appeared or that she had saved them.
Before a minute had passed, the police cruiser had a laser hole in it, and the Spirit headed for Jack’s ship. When the communications array beeped, he decided to answer the call. The pale-skinned blond woman he had briefly seen in the detective’s office appeared on the screen. “Hello, Jack,” she said. “Remember me?”
“Can’t say that I’ve had the pleasure.” As he spoke, he tried to keep the ship moving away from her, but the Spirit gained on him.
Tegan’s brow furrowed in annoyance. “Are you really going to play that game?”
“Lady, I’m not playing any games. I know you’re Tegan O’Leary because I did my research, but I have no idea who you are or why you’re after me.”
Cobalt clambered up the ladder to the cockpit. “Okay, I’ve got the thruster—” He stared at Tegan. “Hello, Cuttlefish.”
Tegan gave him a not-altogether-pleasant smile. “Cobalt. It’s nice to know someone remembers me.”
Cob
alt’s face was deader than Jack had ever seen it. “It’s hard to forget the person who killed you.”
She nodded toward Jack. “Your twin seems to have.”
“Yes, well.” Cobalt shrugged. “Jack.”
Jack didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, but he decided to use Cobalt and Tegan’s staring contest to escape. Cobalt had said he fixed the thruster, but Jack continued to move as if disabled, knowing Tegan would follow. He glanced at the clock. If he remembered the timetable right—and he did—a train should be leaving for Bellerophon any moment.
The train exited the station. I need to time this just right. He moved slowly toward the tracks, then just before the train crossed his path, he cut the comm line and darted across the tracks in front of it. As he went, he expelled the ship’s garbage to hit the front of the train. Then he adjusted course and speed to move parallel with it. With any luck, Tegan would assume the explosion of garbage was their ship getting torn apart. If not, she wouldn’t be able to distinguish his signal from the train’s for as long as he kept pace with it, which he planned to do all the way to Bellerophon.
Cobalt dropped into the copilot’s seat. “Are you insane? You nearly got us run over by a train!”
“Am I insane? You’re the one who seems to know the woman who wants to kill us!” Jack put the ship back into autopilot. “I asked you before what was going on with you, and I think it’s time for you to start talking.”
Chapter 28
Twenty Years Ago
Gavin lay on his cot in the tent he shared with the other medics on Arachne and stared up at the white canvas. He needed to get up soon, judging by the way the sun angled through the tent flap. When the alarm went off, he would get up, shower and shave, and go through as normal a day as he could, considering it might be his last day with Roslyn in it.
Raring’s soft snores rose from the adjacent cot, and Gavin envied him his ability to sleep. Gavin hadn’t slept so much as dozed in the past two weeks since Cobalt had rushed into the infirmary, carrying an unconscious Roslyn, with a hysterical, shirtless Jack on his tail. The purple rash on Roslyn’s arms had clued Gavin in to the danger. Jack hadn’t left Roslyn’s side, and despite Gavin’s assertions that the best thing any of them could do was take care of themselves, Gavin had abandoned sleep.
After the morning alarm finally went off and he performed his ablutions, he headed toward the mess tent. He wasn’t in a hurry. Roslyn’s case was the only one that required his skills, and he couldn’t do anything to help her. Besides, watching Jack spend days at Roslyn’s side like the dedicated lover he never was raised Gavin’s hackles.
Someone approached Gavin as he siphoned the gloop they called food there into a travel mug. He glanced up to see Hannah Carriger standing by his side. He didn’t know how to feel about her. She seemed like a competent-enough archaeologist, but Roslyn hadn’t been gone for more than a few days before rumors of Dr. Carriger and Jack carrying on an illicit romance circulated through the camp. Gavin had thought Dr. Carriger and Roslyn had been striking up a friendship, and it surprised him that the doctor would betray her fellow archaeologist in that manner.
“Can I help you, Doctor?” Gavin asked. “Perhaps get you a mug of this refreshing breakfast?”
Dr. Carriger scowled. As Gavin studied her, he realized she looked worse than she had when they’d landed about a month ago. Her eyes were as puffy as he knew his to be, and something in their depths spoke of desperation. “I need you to make Jack come back to work.”
Gavin laughed, and the bitterness in the sound surprised him. “I can’t make Jack do anything. Nobody can, except maybe Cobalt. Try him.”
She bit her lip and looked away. “Cobalt won’t talk to me. He’ll do what I tell him to—exactly what I say and no more—but he won’t answer any questions or say anything.”
“Can you really blame him?” Gavin took a sip of his grainy drink. It really was one of the most disgusting things he had ever tasted, and he had eaten military ready-to-eat meals in dozens of armies.
“You’re all blaming me because your precious Roslyn is ill,” Dr. Carriger said. “But it’s not my fault. She was sick before she even found out about Jack and me.”
“Roslyn’s not just ill. She’s most likely dying.”
“Oh, don’t exaggerate. Lots of people have gotten this disease, and no one’s come even close to dying.”
Gavin slammed his travel mug onto the table next to him. “Are you calling me a liar, Dr. Carriger? You know as well as I do that no one was laid up for two weeks with this disease.”
Dr. Carriger held up her hands and took a step back. “No, I’m not calling you a liar. I just don’t understand what the big deal is. It’s a weird disease, but to everyone else, it’s been no worse than a bad cold. Which means this has to do with the big secret you all are keeping.”
“Secret.” Gavin’s voice was flat.
“Yes, secret. You all show up here in your fancy ship, a new freelance team to help with the research. Roslyn immediately recognized the symbols on those alien devices. I know she did. She passes out, and when she wakes up, not only will she tell me nothing, but she refuses to even look at the artifacts again.
“So she gives me Jack, who as far as I could tell was the cabin boy of the party, except he’s not. He starts detecting patterns in the rocks I never would have noticed in a million years. We were so close to knowing what the symbols are, what these devices do. And now he won’t help me!”
“That’s all this is to you, isn’t it?” Gavin asked. “An archaeological find. Some discovery to get your name in the journals and maybe the history books.”
Dr. Carriger threw her hands in the air. “Of course that’s what it is! What is it to you? Life or death?”
Gavin couldn’t explain to her what Arachne was to them—their history, their future, and maybe Roslyn’s forever grave. “And what about Jack?”
“What about Jack?”
Gavin felt his lip curl. “Is he just another tool to you? You seduce him in hopes he reveals all these secrets you’re so convinced we’re keeping?”
“It’s not like it was hard,” Dr. Carriger said.
Gavin turned his back on her. “Good luck with your research, Dr. Carriger. It sounds like you’re going to need it.”
He closed his eyes as he walked away. Roslyn needed hope and love to sustain her through the illness, and thanks to that woman’s selfish ambitions, all she had was a broken heart. Once upon a time, Gavin would have prayed, but he had fallen out of the habit along with humanity, so instead he sent out a thought to Roslyn’s spirit. Please, Roslyn. Please pull through this. You’re so strong. You’re the strongest person I know. Jack’s stupidity has never broken you before. Make it through just one last time.
As Gavin approached the infirmary tent, a black-clad figure rushed out at him. Jack neither looked nor smelled well after two weeks of flat-out refusing to leave Roslyn’s side for any reason. His emergence could only mean one of two things, and he was smiling. Smiling.
Jack reached out to clasp Gavin’s hand. “Her fever broke. Raring says she’s going to make it.”
Present Day
Gavin opened his eyes with a strange sense of invigoration. He didn’t know what to make of the dreams he’d been having, where he was a doctor exploring Arachne, of all places. All he knew was if he stayed in his cage, he would spend all his time mulling over dreams and abilities that made no sense. He needed to focus on things that mattered, like Windla. The best way he could think to do that was to fulfill his father’s wishes and win the games.
He studied his first obstacle: the force field. Though he’d trained in survival techniques, no one had ever taught him how to escape from a cell. The assumption was if he ever ended up in one, he deserved to be there. Maybe in this case he did as well, but he would still try to get out.
Gavin, Gavin, Gavin
, came a voice from the back of his mind, a voice he recognized as belonging to Jack from his dream. Nobody, not even a constant do-gooder like you, should be without the basic knowledge of how to short-circuit a force field. You never know when you might be caught behind one. Now, this won’t help you with a really good barrier, but for a low-grade one, here’s what you need to do.
And suddenly Gavin knew. He made sure the guard was still glued to his datapad and reached into the grate around the force field. His fingers were thick, so it was difficult to get to the wires, but eventually, he felt them—the thick one, the thin one, and the braided one, just like Jack had said. His fingernails weren’t long, but they were enough to snap the braided wire. The force field fizzled out with a crackle of lightning and a boom of thunder.
Thanks for the warning about the noise, Jack, Gavin thought as the guard stood up.
“Hey, what’s going on over there?” The guard picked up his Taser and made his way over to Gavin’s cell.
Gavin was prepared for a physical fight. He dodged the Taser and used his newfound medical knowledge to hit the guard on the back of the neck at just the right angle to knock him out. Unfortunately, the poor man was going to have a very bad headache when he woke up in a few hours, but by then, Gavin planned to be long gone.
“Hey!” Abe yelled. “Let us out too!”
Gavin looked Abe and Jesse up and down. “Why should I?”
Jesse grinned. “Because the other guards are about to come rushing in here any minute, and I have something in my gear that will take care of them.”
Though Gavin knew he shouldn’t trust them, some inner nobility argued that letting them out was the right thing to do. He snapped the braided wire on Jesse and Abe’s cell then turned to the other trapped pair. “You guys want out too?”
“Naw, man,” one said. “We’ve got showers and real food in here. We’re going to accept our loss.”
Gavin shrugged and joined Abe and Jesse as they went through their equipment. He didn’t bother grabbing anything except his knife because he only needed to survive a few more hours out there, and he thought he could handle anything once he escaped. A trimper kill and a few dreams of competence, and we’re overconfident, aren’t we?
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